Achieving Balance in a Hybrid World, RingCentral Shares PerspectiveAchieving Balance in a Hybrid World, RingCentral Shares Perspective

At Enterprise Connect last month, Anand Eswaran, president and COO of RingCentral, highlighted five defining factors that RingCentral sees as crucial for the future of work. And at its virtual user and partner event, RingCentral Connect, Eswaran carried this message forward with his opening session, sharing more details on this vision.

As enterprises look to the future, they will be influenced by the last 18 months of changes and are embracing digital transformation like never before, Eswaran said. While some enterprises committed to digital transformation well before the pandemic, others had to develop a digital transformation strategy on the fly, Eswaran noted. “The response to the challenge wasn't about technology nor was it about digital transformation,” Eswaran said. “It was about keeping the lights on.”

Echoing his points made during Enterprise Connect, Eswaran shared that RingCentral sees five key aspects being crucial to the future of work: participant equity, “systems of experience” that blend different technology capabilities (unified communications and contact center), the composable enterprise, AI and automation capabilities for both knowledge workers and contact center agents, and the ability to work flexibly in a manner that fits an enterprise’s specific needs.

“The future is unified communications platforms as a service, and it's that future, which will draw on the potential of artificial intelligence,” Eswaran elaborated. Already AI and automation have proven themselves for contact centers where it’s used to reduce complexities, freeing up time for agents to have more meaningful engagements with customers, he said. Similarly, sales teams can use intelligence augmentation to qualify leads over chats and then be able to share that lead with the subject matter experts, Eswaran added.

With those lessons learned from the pandemic, technology will continue to evolve to meet changing expectations around work, while allowing employees to “work from anywhere at a moment's notice,” Eswaran said. “Our collective workplace itself continues to adapt every single day, collaboratively, and technologically,” Eswaran added.

Additionally, Eswaran pointed out that part of that changing landscape is a focus on human connections and well-being. “We are looking for ways to fight isolation and fatigue, monitor stress, [and] hone mindfulness techniques to attain a healthy balance and harmony between working and life,” Eswaran said. And these five defining factors “are essential to achieving that balance in this new hybrid world,” Eswaran said.